THE HERMITAGE

                             Russia's Great Museum

The Hermitage is a St. Petersburg land mark, and its façade is known the world over. I’m sure most people know the Hermitage was Catherine, the Great’s palace and now is a huge wonderful art museum. The contents you just have to see to believe and understand---and they rotate and change on a regular basis. Describing the Hermitage is like trying to describe the Smithsonian. So let me tell you a few things that perhaps you don’t know.

The Winter Palace was built between 1754 and 1762 for Empress Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great. Unfortunately, Elizabeth died before the palace completion and Catherine the Great, her successor, lived in and enjoyed the lovely palace of the czars. It is painted turquoise which was Elizabeth’s favorite color.

Today the Hermitage Museum occupies five buildings on the banks of the Neva River. The largest and best known of the city’s 50 museums, it occupies 1057 rooms that house three million artifacts from the Stone Age to the 20^th century. It houses the largest collection of art and antiquities in the world including 12,000 sculptures, 15,000 paintings, 225,000 works of applied art, and 600,000 drawings and prints. The Hermitage Museum is among the largest and most respected art museums in the world.

It is said that if one spent only a few moments at each display it would take nine years to see it all! Only 3-4 percent of the collection is on display at any one time. Peter the Great started the collection, Catherine the Great added tremendously to it with the purchase of her European collections, and Alexander I relieved Napoleon’s wife, Josephine, of her entire art collection after the French defeat in 1814. The great collection that includes masterpieces by Leonardo de Vinci, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Picasso is housed in 400 of its rooms.

Many of the palace’s impressive interiors have been remodeled, particularly after 1837 when a huge fire destroyed most of the building. The Hermitage is so big it seems overwhelming.

A P.S. to our Hermitage experience

As we entered the museum we checked our day packs as instructed. I removed my small camera and put it in my pocket where it stayed for the entire visit. Remember this.

Then we headed up one of 120 palace staircases. The red-carpeted wide marble staircase reminded us of the one at Wurtzburg Palace. Perfect for my friend and me to practice walking up it the way we learned in Germany. Grasping our pant leg (no skirt) with our left hand, we extended our right elbow at 90 degrees and extended the pinkie finger in the air and with head held high enough to look down our nose we started our ascent. We made it to the top of the long winding staircase before bursting out in giggles, not giving a hoot what anyone watching us thought. Silly, yes but fun!

          As we were about to return to the checkout counter we stopped to       watch 14 men decide how to get a large carriage up the stairs we had originally ascended. It was an interesting exercise as most of them apparently had no idea what they were doing. They used 6-8-inch wide wooden strips for the wheels to ride up on, but they used press-board and every time the carriage got on the strips they broke in half. When this happened the men stood and scratched their heads. It was like watching a comedy skit.We watched in amazement for some time and then finally had to leave.

            Returning to the checkroom we observed the lady behind the counter going through a big black purse that had been checked. She looked up, saw us, closed the bag and returned it to its slot. Unabashed she slowly came to the counter for our tags and  collected our bags. It did not appear that either of our bags had been tampered with, but as we walked away, I said, “I’m sure glad I didn’t leave my camera in my bag!”